Please join The Future of Film is Female for its second annual evening of short films at Nitehawk Cinema! These sixteen films across two programs span genre and style, capturing a unique look at our present moment – or a wild escape from it.

Both programs will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

The Future of Film is Female is a non-profit organization whose mission is to amplify the work of all women and non-binary filmmakers through its Short Film Fund and exhibition programming. Short films are at the heart of what we do! To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

River Bank (Pō-Kehgeh), 2023, dir. Charine Pilar Gonzales, 13 min
A Tewa woman must listen to the spirit of the River in order to free herself.

Me & Aydarous, 2022, dir. Sara Balghonaim, 8 min
Jude coerces her disapproving driver, Aydarous, into taking her to meet a date. Set over the course of a night in 2005 Riyadh, Jude must find creative ways to get rid of Aydarous so that she can have an intimate moment with her boyfriend.

Loveland, 2024, dir. Sofia Bonami, 11 min
When a woman mysteriously disappears from the production of America’s favorite dating show LOVELAND, one contestant becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened to her — jeopardizing the one thing she came for: happily ever after.

Tender Thoughts, 2024, dir. Anndi Jinelle Liggett, 9 min
A whimsical, modern-day fable about a Black woman regaining her sense of self after years of being a corporate cog. Inspired by a Shel Silverstein illustration.

Contractions, 2024, dir. Lynne A. Sachs, 12 min
Forthright yet intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a women’s clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America, a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body.

Golden Child, 2024, dir. Hannah Levin, 10 min
A young woman is reunited with her childhood friend at a pool party and reckons with the fact that he used to pee on her when they were kids.

Inner Demons, 2023, dir. Jasmine J. Johnson, 11 min
Mya’s world takes a harrowing twist when pills meant to alleviate depression unwittingly unleash a nightmarish entity that embodies her inner turmoil. Mya finds herself entangled in a relentless battle against her own psyche, fighting not just for her mental well-being but her very survival.

Make Me a Pizza, 2024, Talia Shea Levin, 12 min
BORED HOUSEWIFE seduces HOT PIZZA GUY for free pizza, but is desire worth $29.99?

20th anniversary screening with rare archival 35mm print!

After bassist Jason Newsted quits the band in 2001, superstars Metallica realize that they need an intervention. In this revealing documentary, the filmmakers follow the three rock stars as they hire a group therapist and grapple with 20 years of repressed anger and aggression while searching for a replacement bass player and creating a new album confronting their personal demons.

Named one of the ten best music documentaries of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, this groundbreaking and critically acclaimed 2004 documentary, directed and produced by the award-winning team of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, takes you inside the studio and into the psyches of Metallica as they record their Grammy-winning album St. Anger.

Join us at Nitehawk Prospect Park for a rare, archival 35mm screening to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film Roger Ebert called, “Brilliant Oscar-level documentary filmmaking. Never a dull moment… fascinating…” and NPR’s David Edelstein cited as “One of the most marvelous rock documentaries of all time…”

Starring: Amanda Flowers, Summer Greenberg, Michael Madsen, Cherie Currie, Kansas Bowling, Parker Love Bowling

Preceded by the short film The Triangular Door

Two sisters are thrown out of their isolation and onto opposite coasts of America by a terrifying cosmic entity. While one sister suffers from memory loss and the other is too young to understand her own past, the girls discover they possess supernatural powers as they are pursued by the mysterious and unearthly being hell–bent on their destruction. Spirit Riser is a genre-bending fantasy with elements of horror, comedy, action, surrealism, and martial arts from rising New York City filmmaker Dylan Mars Greenberg. 

Starring: Sakura Tange, Aya Hisakawa, Junko Iwao, Motoko Kumai, Tomokazu Seki, Megumi Ogata

Ten-year old Sakura Avalon, Cardcaptor of the elusive, magical Clow Cards, unexpectedly wins a trip to Hong Kong where strange dreams lead her to an imprisoned sorceress with close connections to the creator of the cards.

Starring: Meiko Kaji, Kayoko Shiraishi, Kuniko Ishii, Yuki Aresa, Fumio Watanabe

After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.

Starring: Grace Glowicki, Garrick Bernard, Heather Matarazzo

Join the Future of Film is Female for a special preview screening of Mary Dauterman’s BOOGER. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

After the death of her best friend Izzy, Anna focuses all her attention on Booger, the stray cat which she and Izzy took in. When Booger bites her, she begins to undergo a strange transformation.

Starring: Samantha Morton, Michael Shannon, Natasha Calis, Charlie Tahan, Peter Fonda

In his first film in nearly 15 years, John McNaughton harks back to the depravity that made his 1986 debut a horror milestone. But less based in reality, The Harvest is closer to a fairy tale from Grimm’s darkest corners. Maryann (an impressive Natasha Calis) moves in with her grandparents after she’s orphaned. Desperately lonely, the preteen sets out to befriend a neighboring deathly ill, bed-ridden boy (Charlie Tahan), despite the outright disapproval of his mother (Samantha Morton). Maryann’s persistence pays off, however, and during a series of secret visits she gradually uncovers some seriously sinister goings-on in the house… Morton as the boy’s overprotective surgeon mom is the stuff of great screen villainy—at once utterly monstrous and tragically desperate.

An outlier in John McNaughton’s filmography, Condo Painting is his sole documentary, focusing on the work of painter George Condo. Focusing on the creation of one particular work, the film provides Condo with a platform to express his obsessions, and includes interviews with his friends William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsburg.

This screening is a true rarity, with an archival 35mm print.

To celebrate the release of Vinnie Stigma’s new book The Most Interesting Man in the World, we’re screening the Agnostic Front doc The Godfathers of Hardcore, followed by a Q&A with Vinnie Stigma and a special acoustic performance.

Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma are lynchpins of New York Hardcore (NYHC), and their band Agnostic Front played a key role in defining, shaping and establishing the sound and cultural code of conduct for the still-thriving movement. Unlike the dozens of bands that have come and gone, leaving their indelible footprint along the way, Agnostic Front are still going strong, 11 studio albums into their 30-plus year career.

In a landscape of increasing apathy and complacency, the messages Agnostic Front presents are as relevant today as they were in the ‘80s when the band members were impoverished, scrappy and ambitious, often fighting for their very survival as well as the perseverance of their volatile but highly inspirational band.

Roger and Vinnie remain the very embodiment of hardcore, representing endurance, perseverance, brotherhood, strength against oppression and the will to keep going, obstacles be damned. Agnostic Front exist on a level all their own. . . a level of their own creation.

Starring: Ben Loftus, Noah Brockman, Isabel Zaia

A trio of soon-to-be college graduates are snapped out of their ennui when a professor’s mayoral run (with promises to purge the town of “low art”) imperils their beloved karaoke bar. Shot entirely on 16mm film, this freewheeling low-fi comedy is packed with absurdity, sophistication, and razor-sharp wit.

Preceded by two short films:
Ain’t No Cure for Love: America (7 min) d. Matthew Danger Lippman
Chicago, IL. Happy hour. Andrew’s friendship with his colleague Rich nearly unravels when he clues him in to his secret obsession.

Land of Lincoln (17 min) d. Jack Dunphy
A newly sober actress endures a Thanksgiving from Hell with her aunt’s self destructive partner, and his son, a wannabe playwright.